of tonight's state of the union. president obama calling on congress to raise the federal minimum wage from where it is right now, $7.25 to $9 an hour. alex wagner joins us now. i think the president made news on this point. is this a realistic policy vote? >> it was really shocking that republicans couldn't stand up for equal pay, couldn't stand up for a fair voting system in the u.s., to see them agree to $9 an hour would seem to me to be a jump. at the same time, this is the story of america right now, one of the most under discussed issues in the country, the fact that one in two american families live at the poverty line. the poverty line is 23,000, $24,000 a year. to some degree, it should not be shocking that they will take this up as a matter of discourse. at the same time, of course it was. we have come so far away from the subject of poverty and mobility. it was a really important moment for the state of the union. >> something they discovered over the past decade was when you put the minimum wage, you rais